When I moved to the high desert at 29yo I had pretty good skin- especially for the amount of sun I got growing up (lived near the beach but was pretty good with sunscreen). My cheeks and nose looked porous but the rest of me was smooth enough. Now as I turn 32 my whole face looks like sandpaper- "orange peel texture" everywhere and there are a trillion microfolds under my eyes. I can tell I've aged in other ways too: much less fat in my cheeks and my eyes are more hooded.
I'm not really asking for advice. As far as I can tell this is from lost elastin which won't come back. It still looks fine in most lighting or at a distance and frankly as a man I am lucky that there are less societal expectations on me to have youthful looking skin. I'm instead curious about like what the heck happened? The amount I've aged from 29 to not even 32 is frightening. The main change in my life is moving to the high desert. It's dry here and I don't have any skincare routine besides sun protection. My lips are never dry or crack and my skin never flakes. It's hard to imagine just 2.5 years of dryness could've had that big of an effect on me. I assume it's sun and aging. But wow. Curious what you all think :)